Subj : Expert calls for compulsory Health Star Ratings on food labels
To   : All
From : News
Date : Thu May 02 2024 12:58 pm

Food policy expert Sally Mackay is calling for Health Star Ratings to be
mandatory on products in New Zealand.


It comes after new research from Auckland University revealed 70% of products
still don't carry a Health Star Rating.


The research found 30.4% of products carried a Health Star Rating in
mid-2023. By 2019, 25% of products displayed a Health Star Rating - showing
there's been very little progress in the past five years.


After a review in 2019, the Australian and New Zealand governments set
targets to encourage greater use of the system.


It included an uptake goal of 50% of products using an HSR by November last
year and 70% by the end of 2025.


Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Mackay said the research wasn't
surprising but it was disappointing.


Mackay said the system shouldn't be scrapped but needed to become mandatory
in order for it to be effective.


"Then that will help consumers a lot because it's on all the products and
it'll help them choose. But it can also help with reformulation as well
because manufactures want a higher health star rating so they might lower the
salt or sugar to get a better Health Star Rating."


Mackay said there's set to be a food ministers meeting tomorrow, where the
Health Star Rating would be discussed. She said she hopes they'll talk about
whether to make it mandatory or not.


"They've set their own target of 50% of products having a Health Star Rating
by the end of last year and they're a long way from that at 30%."


She said places such as Latin America used a different system where labels
noted when products were high in sugar, salt, or fat.


Prof Swinburn: 'We're doing nothing'
Speaking to Breakfast last year, health researcher Boyd Swinburn also said
Latin America had an effective system. But he believed the food industry in
New Zealand would prefer to retain the existing system.


"The food industry would put great pressure on to keep the existing,
ineffective system. They do not want what's happening in Latin America where
they have warning labels saying this is high in sugar or salt or fat or
whatever because they know that that makes an influence on purchasing
behaviour."

Swinburn said Europe had a good system, and New Zealand had the potential to
follow suit, but was stuck in its ways.


"We're like a placebo country, we're doing nothing, other countries are doing
way more than we are."

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